With the development of electronic technologies, power adapters are widely used together with network terminal devices, such as twin handset phones, game consoles, language repeaters, Walkmans, notebook computers, and cellular phones. A power adapter is generally configured to supply power to a network terminal device.
As shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a power line communication (English full name: Power Line Communication, PLC for short) networking diagram. It can be seen that a power adapter and a power line communication modem each occupy one mains socket. Power supplies distributed from a municipal power grid to each electronic terminal are collectively referred to as mains supplies. A voltage of the mains socket is usually a single-phase 220 V voltage or a three-phase 380 V voltage. A PLC terminal (that is, the power line communication modem) is connected to a router by using a network cable, and the power adapter is connected to the router by using a power cable. On the router, interfaces are provided for connecting to the power line communication modem and to the power adapter.
It can be learned that, at least two mains sockets and two cables are required when a power adapter and a PLC terminal are used at the same time. This wastes space and resources, thereby affecting home environments.